32 Feared Lost From Grain Ship

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30631, 23 December 1964, Page 13

32 Feared Lost From Grain Ship

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright-) JUNEAU (Alaska), December 21. Thirty-two members of the crew of the Liberian freighter, San Patrick, were feared lost today after the Japan-bound ship was wrecked last Thursday in the storm-swept Aleutian islands.

The 10,000-ton converted tanker went aground on a rocky reef off Ulak Island, far out in the Aleutian chain, 120 miles west of Adak. The wreckage was sighted on Sunday by a Navy search pilot from Adak, but there was no sign of survivors or the four life-boats carried by the San Patrick. All or most of the crew was from Spain. The freighter left Vancouver on December 9 for Yokohama with Canadian grain and cattle feed on her first voyage since being converted to a bulk carrier. She formerly was the tanker, Good Hope. Four Navy planes, two Navy ships and a Japanese fishing boat conducted an air and surface search today for possible survivors. New York reports today said that four'- men were brought to safety by rowing boat from the disabled American freighter, Smith Voyager, listing in high seas yesterday, 780 miles southeast of Bermuda. Master Bruised

The German-born master of the 7606-ton ship, Captain Frederick Mohle, aged 59, was reported to have suffered painful bruises before

and during his rescue by United States Coastguards. The Coastguard cutter which took them aboard said the other three men rescued, the third mate, Charles Jackson, and two seamen, were in excellent condition.

The West German freighter, Mathilde Bolten, took off 34 of the Smith Voyager’s crew and the bodies of four others on Sunday. The Smith Voyager, bound for Ceuta, Spanish Morocco, began listing and taking on water on Sunday because of shifting grain cargo. Coastguards said the ship’s agents had arranged for a British salvage tug to sail from Bermuda for the listing freighter.